Yesterday’s announcement that the Skype video calling on Android is finally an option excited many. At least it did until Skype revealed that only a handful of phones are able to have mobile-to-mobile and Android phone to desktop video calls. Everyone left on the outside looking in can rectify that problem with a hacked version of Skype posted to VillainRom last night.

It turns out that Skype’s method for enabling video calls is as simple as creating a manifest that says which phones are allowed to use it – Nexus S, HTC Desire S, and Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo and Pro. Developer pulse_g2 simply created a workaround that then opened up video chat for a variety of phones that are not officially supported.

There’s no central list of phones that are successful in running Skype video calls, but I’m unable to successfully place or take a call on my HTC EVO 4G running CyanogenMod. There were some glitches as the camera crashed and audio sounds like a Kanye West circa-2002 remix of an Alvin and the Chipmunks song. However, I’ve seen a few reports of people successfully running this on their Samsung Galaxy S 2 and even on an SE Xperia Arc’s rear camera, so it seems to be a crapshoot. Here’s how to test if the app will work with your device.